The normal subgroup structure of the infinite general linear group

Abstract

The classification of the normal subgroups of the infinite general linear group GL(Ω, R) has received much attention and has been studied in, for example, (6), (4) and (2). The main theorem of (6) gives a complete classification of the normal subgroups of GL(Ω, R) when R is a division ring, while the results of (2) require that R satisfies certain finiteness conditions. The object of this paper is to produce a classification, along the lines of that given by Wilson in (7) or by Bass in (3) in the finite dimensional case, that does not require any finiteness assumptions. However, when R is Noetherian, the classification given here reduces to that given in (2).